Machine for attaching dip tubes to aerosol dispenser valve assemblies



y l957 R. H. ABPLANALP 2,800,702

MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES TO AEROSOL DISPENSER. VALVE ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 2, 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet l IIHIII INVENTOR. H. 45px. flA/HL P BY @WKQML y 9 1957 R. H. ABPLANALP 7 2,800,702 MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES T0 AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 2, 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 HTTOENE) July 30, 1957 R. H. ABPLANALP MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES TO AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 2, 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 mmvron- ROBERT/[1481M n/vnLP H. ABPLANALP 2,800,702

July 30, 1957 R MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES TO AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Sept. 2. 1953 INVENTOR.

05527" H. flBPMA/HLP July 1957 R. H. ABPLANALP 2,800,702

MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES To AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 2. 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. Foal-79TH 148P4M4P I Km WA July 30, 1957 R. H. ABPLANALP 3,890,702

MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DIP TUBES TO AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES Filed Sept. 2, 1953 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTOR. Pose rfl HaPMA/ALP BY m A? TTOPA/E) MACHINE FOR ATTACHING DE TUBES TO AEROSOL DISPENSER VALVE ASSEMBLIES Robert H. Abplanalp, Bronx, N. Y., assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, of one-half to John J. Baessler, Yonkers, N. Y.

This invention is a machine for attaching dip tubes of the valve assemblies used in the dispensing of pressurized materials, such as aerosols.

Aerosol packages comprise, generally speaking, a container to the upper end of which is attached a dispensing valve mechanism from which a dip tube extends downwardly to the bottom of the container. The valve mechanism is usually in the form of a dispenser unit or assembly embodying a valve housing with an associated valve. The valve housing is frequently supported upon a metal cap by means of which the housing is mounted on the container. The stem extends upwardly from the valve housing and carries a push button adapted to be pressed downwardly to permit the exit of pressurized material from the container, while the lower end of the housing is provided with an integral nipple to which the dip tube is attached. According to prior practice, these dip tubes, commonly formed frornplastic material, are cut to length and assembled on the nipples of the valve housings by hand. A large number of girls have heretofore been employed to cut and insert the nipple into the upper end of the dip tube, the nipple being provided with a circumferential bead, so that, when the tube is attached, it will be placed under circumferential tension and be maintained on the nipple by friction.

The object of the present invention is toprovide a machine for both attaching the dip tube to the nipple and cut the tube to length and to accomplish this result at high speed, so that the manual assembly of these parts, which heretofore constituted a bottle-neck in quantity production, may be eliminated.

nited States atent Q p The machine of this invention is so constituted as to feed valve units or assemblies (housing, valve and push button in assembled relation) into a predetermined position, to there apply thereto appropriate dip tubes in a simple, efficient, economical and expeditious manner,

embodiment of the invention, but the construction therein shown is to be understood as illustrative only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine embodying the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view, more or less pictorial, showing the upper portion of the machine and the operative relation between the parts thereof.

Fig. 2A shows, partly in section and partly in elevation, a valve assembly and the dip tube which it is the function of the present invention to attach to such assembly.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the upper portion of the larger scale.

Z,8%,'Z@Z Patented July 30, 1957 Fig. 4 is a front view of Fig. 3 looking in the direction indicated by the line 44 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 6.

I Fig. 6 is a section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a fragmental perspective View showing a cap nest to which the valve assembly is fed into position to be attached to the dip tube.

The preferred form of the machine shown in the drawings, comprises a supporting frame in the form of a cabinet-like base 1 from the top of which extends an upstanding supporting plate 2. This plate may be made vertical or horizontal, without departing from the invention, but it is convenient to make it inclined, as shown best in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, and to form it of channel section, as clearly appears from Fig. 2.

The valve assembly and dip tube which it is the purpose of the present invention to attach to one another, are shown in Fig. 2A. In this view, the valve assembly, designated generally A, comprises a valve housing a with associated valve, a push button a1, an attaching cap :12, and a nipple a3, over which the dip tube B is adapted tobe fitted.

The operator, seated in front of the machine, places valve assemblies A into the upper end of an inclined feed slide 3 and they are fed downwardly through said slide by gravity to the base thereof. There the slide makes a right hand turn to form a feed section 4 (Fig. 2). The feed slide is supported upon the front face of the plate 2, as-shown best in Fig. 3.

Also supported on the front face of the plate 2 is a die jacket 5, on one side of which is mounted a bracket 6 and this bracket in turn supports an air motor 7, comprising a cylinder having therein a piston pneumatically operated and electrically controlled through an electrically operated valve. Air motors of this type are well known and need no detailed description. They are so constituted that, upon the selective closing of one of two electric circuits, a valve is selectively operated to admit compressed air at one side or the other of the piston and thus control the reciprocation of the latter. The piston is provided with a stern which, in accordance with the showing in the drawings, is alined with the feed section 4 of the feed slide and operates through the back end thereof. Consequently, when the inclined portion-of the feed slide is charged with valve assemblies A, the lowermost assembly will lie directly in front of the piston stem of the air motor, so that the operation of the piston of the air motor, in a direction to the right in Fig. 2, will impel the lowermost valve assembly to the right through the feed section 4 and into a cap nest, indicated generally by the reference character 8 in Fig. 2 and shown in greater detail in Figs. 5, 6 and 7 0f the drawings. The piston of the air motor operates at high speed and, since it is desirable to have the valve unit come to rest in the valve nest without too great an impact, there is preferably provided at the discharge end of the feed section adjacent the valve nest 8, a permanent magnet 9 which operates as a brake to slow .down the valve assembly and ease it nicely into the concavity 10 formed in the top of the valve nest 8, shown best in Fig. 7. a The valve nest 8 is slotted at its opposite sides to receive cap retainers 11 in the form of oppositely disposedfingers normally biased by springs 12 (Fig. 5), so that said fingers overlie the peripheral flange of the cap and. keep it seated therein against inadvertent displacement. However, if the cap is gripped, as hereinafter described, and forcibly elevated, the springs 12 will yield sufliciently to free the cap for removal from its nest.

- The cap nest is supported on and rigid with a nest support 13 with which it may be integral, although it is shown as attached thereto by screws. This nest support (Figs. 5, 6 and 7) is mounted for vertical reciprocation within a die jacket and is provided at its lower end with a flange 14, engaging with a shoulder 15, to limit the upward movement of the valve nest to a position wherein the base of the concavity 10 of the latter will be flush with the bottom of the feed section 4 of the valve slide. A spring 16 normally holds the valve nest in this position to receive the valve units as they are fed by the air motor 7.

Also within the valve jacket 5 is a tubular valve cage 17. The opposite sides of this cage are slotted to-receive links 18. The outer ends of these links are pivoted in the slots, while the inner end of the links are pivoted to two opposing clamping jaws 19, the contiguous faces of which are of substantially semi-circular cross section. The clamping jaws are housed within a tubular tube guide 20. The opposite sides of this guide are slotted for the passage of the links 19 and said tube guideis normally pressed downwardly by a coil spring 21 (Figs. 5 and 6), the function of which is to'normally impel the clamping jaws downwardly and thus force them toward one another by straightening out the toggles formed by the opposed links.

The clamping jaws are adapted to grip and hold tubing from which the dip tube B may be cut. This tubing stock is indicated at B in Fig. 5, as projecting upwardly through the tube guide 20. In this figure that portion of the tube which extends between the clamps is broken away, so as to more clearly show the clamping jaws, but it will be apparent that, when the tubing B is passed upwardly through the clamping jaw to approximately the level of the upper end of the nest support 13, as shown in this figure, said tubing will be clamped against retrograde movement, although free to move upwardly if drawn in that direction.

The attachment of the cap assembly to the tube is accomplished by depressing the cap nest 8 and its support 13 against the pressure of the coil spring 16 sufiiciently to force the nipple a3 of the valve assembly into the upper end of the tubing B. The tubing B is of plastic material of an internal diameter slightly less than the outer diameter of the nipple a3, but the plastic will sufficiently yield to permit the nipple to be forced into the end of the tubing and, when thus engaged, the union will be tight enough to maintain these parts in assembled relation, so that, if the valve assembly is thereafter lifted out of its nest, it will draw the tubing B after it to the extent of the lift. To insure a firm grip of the tubing on the nipple, the latter is provided with a bead a4 of saw-tooth shape, as shown best in Fig. 2A.

In this machine, that lift is equal to the length of the dip tube B which it is desired to secure to the valve assembly and, after the permanently united tube and assembly have been thus elevated, the tube B is adapted to be sheared from the tubing B by a knife blade 22 operating through a slot 23 in the bottom of the cap nest 8, as clearly shown in Fig. 5. This knife is secured by a link connection 24 to a solenoid 25 (see Figs. 2 and 3). This solenoid normally retracts the knife, but, when energized, advances the knife to cut the tubing. The tubing is normally fed from a roll B2, Fig. 1, and it is fed, as stated, through the lifting movement of the valve assembly, cut off in the manner described with the cut end of the tubing left in theposition of Fig. 5 for attachment to the next nest valve assembly. The roll B3, shown in Fig. l, is a spare roll of tubing to be used when the roll B2 is exhausted.

The operations of depressing the valve nest to secure the valve assembly A to the tubing and of subsequently elevating the assembly and tubing to carry out the fundtions stated, is performed in the manner next to be described.

Mounted coaxially of the valve nest is a ram 26 in the form of a tubular rod guided for reciprocation in guides 27 and 27 rigid with and projecting forwardly from the plate 2 of the frame. This ram is secured at its upper end to a ram yoke 28 which projects rearwardly and is connected to an air motor 29 of the same type as the air motor 7, hereinbefore described. As the air valve of this air motor 29 is electrically controlled, the ram is raised and lowered to perform the functions hereinbefore and hereinafter described.

On the lower end of the ram is supported a hollow cap carrier 30, into the lower end of which is threaded a spring retainer 31, the lower end of which is flanged outwardly, so that a split spring ring 32 is retained between the lower end of the cap carrier and said flange. This split ring is made of spring steel, so as to normally have an outer diameter slightly larger than the depression in the upper side of the cap a2 of the valve assembly A. When the ram is forced downwardly to position the spring ring within the cap, saidring tightly engages the interior of said cap and takes such a tight grip thereon that, when the ram is subsequently raised, it will carry the wholeassembly A along with it and at the same time draw the tubing B after it. The downward throw of the ram is sufficient to engage it with the cap and force the nipple a3 of the valve assembly into the upper end of the tubing, while its upward throw is sufficient to feed the desired length of tubing.

All the parts of the machine are of course timed, as hereinafter explained, to operate in proper synchronism and timed relation to one another. After the ram has moved upwardly a distance to feed the desired length of the tubing, the cap a2 of the valve assembly A encounters a bifurcated stripper 33 located in its path (Figs. 2 and 5) and thereupon the slight upward overtravel of the ram disengages the cap carrier spring 32 from the cap to free the assembly A for discharge from the machine. After the ram has continued its upward movement, the knife blade 22 severs the tubing. The discharge of the assembly is accomplished pneumatically by compressed air, through a connection 34. A blast of air, admitted in timed relation to this operation, blows the united valve assembly A and dip tube B to the right in Fig. 2, as indicated by the arrow and in dotted lines, and the product is received in a conveniently positioned container. The stripper is adjustable on a threaded screw 35 and the adjustment maintained by a detent 36. By adjusting the stripper up or down, the length of the tubing fed at each operation may be regulated and the length of the dip tube determined.

The remainder of the machine largely involves controls for the compressed air and the electrical circuits by which the compressed air is controlled.

These controls are operated, broadly, from three mechanisms, indicated in Fig. 2. The first is an operating collar 38 fixed on the ram 26. The second is a switch shaft 39 directly back of the ram and mounted for parallel reciprocation in the upper and lower ram guides 27 and 27, and the third is an arm 40 carried by the hinge pin 45 of a cover 46.

Fixed on the upper portion of the switch shaft 39 is a switch actuating arm 41 and fixed on the lower portion of that shaft is a fixed collar 42. The fixed collar 38 onthe ram operates between the parts 41 and 42. As said ram nears the upper portion of its stroke, it engages with the arm 41, shifts the shaft 39 upwardly and completes a circuit 43a through a microswitch 43 which is a single pole, double throw switch. The circuit 43a includes one side of the solenoid valve of the air motor 7. When the ram descends and nears the bottom of its stroke, it engages with the fixed collar 42 on the shaft 39 and forces said shaft downwardly, whereby the arm 41 operates the switch 43 to close a circuit 43b through the other side of the solenoid of the same air motor 7. A friction brake 44 bears against the shaft 39 to hold it in either position to which it may be moved by the fixed collar 38 on the ram.

The arm 40 is fixed to the hinge pin 45 of a hinge 46 mounted on the lower ram guide 27' and carrying the cover 46. When this cover is in lowered position, indicated in full lines in Fig. 3, the arm 40 bears against a button 47 of a microswitch 48 (Fig. 2) and closes a circuit 59 through said switch at that point. When the cover is raised, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3 and in full lines in Fig. 2, the circuit through the microswitch 48 is opened at this point. lThe stop 49 is adapted to bear against the under side of the lower ram guide and properly locate the cover in its down position. This cover is a safety device for, as presently described, the microswitch 48 controls a valve which admits or shuts oflE compressed air to or from the whole machine.

A microswitch 50 controls the cut-off solenoid 25 and is controlled in turn by the collar 38 on the ram through a spring 51 associated with the microswitch. Switch 50 is a normally open switch and is closed when the spring 51 is engaged by said collar. The switch 52 is the main switch of the machine. When switched off at its finger piece 52a, it de-energizes all parts of the machine, since current from the main is fed to the machine through this switch. The controls are operated in the following manner:

As the operator sits in front of a machine to feed the valve assemblies to the feed slide 3, she presses her foot upon a control lever 53 (Fig. 1). When depressed, this lever opens a valve 54 and permits the passage of compressed air from a compressed air supply 55 through a pipe 56 to a valve 57 controlled by a solenoid 58.

Although the pressure of the foot pedal admits air to the valve 57, this valve will be closed and no compressed air can pass through the same unless or until the cover 46 is lowered into safe position, wherein it will guard the operator against putting her hands into the path of the ram. When the cover is lowered, the arm 40 will be in engagement with the button 47 of the microswitch 48, which is the main air controlled switch. When this switch is closed, it will complete the circuit 59 which leads to the solenoid 58 of the main air valve 57 and in so doing will admit air to the valves of the two air motors 7 and 29 and to the solenoid valve 60. Said motors, however, will not function until their individual valves are electrically controlled from their respective control switches.

Let us assume that the operators foot is depressing the foot pedal 53 and that the ram has engaged with a valve assembly unit A and has lifted the same to engagement with the stripper. Continuing to elevate, the fixed collar 38 of the ram thereafter engages the spring 51 of the microswitch 50 and closes that switch.

As a result of this operation, a circuit is closed to the cut-off solenoid 25 and that solenoid operated to cut the tubing B to the length to which the assembly has been elevated. Immediately thereafter, air is admitted through a solenoid controlled valve 60 to the connection 34 with the result that, after the assembly has been stripped from the ram, the finished product is blown from the stripper. The ram continues to rise, bringing its collar 38 into engagement with the hub of the switch actuating arm 41, lifting the switch shaft 39 and also changing the circuit through the microswitch 43. The microswitch 43 is connected to the solenoids of the air motors 7 and 29 through circuits 43a and 43b, so as to reverse the valves thereof, with the result that the air motor 7 feeds the next valve assembly to the valve nest, while the air motor 29 moves the ram 26 downwardly.

As the ram starts to move downwardly, the switch actuating arm 41 remains elevated because of the brake 44 and consequently the ram will be driven downwardly by its air motor 29 until the projection 61 of collar 38 engages the fixed collar 42 on the switch shaft 39 and it will then depress this switch shaft until the cap carrying spring engages the valve assembly A. Having thus engaged with the cap, it forces the valve nest downwardly far enough to engage the nipple a3 with the tubing. By the time this has occurred, the switch actuating arm 41 has been depressed enough to actuate the microswitch 43 to open circuit 43a and close circuit 43b. As soon as this switch is thus operated, the valve of the air motor 29 is reversed and the ram moves rapidly upwardly to raise the cap to the stripper, after which time the cut oif knife is operated, whereupon the operations described are repeated.

It is sometimes desirable, particularly where piecework operators are employed, to associate with the machine a counter 63, shown in Figs. 3 and 4, the actuating lever of which may be operated by a pin 62 on the ram yoke 28.

I have not attempted in the accompanying drawings to show all the electrical and pneumatic connections, but they will be perfectly clear to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description of their connections and the mode of operation of the parts. In practice I prefer to control the cut-off solenoid 25 and the solenoid valve 60 from 110 volt current, while the microswitch 43 which controls the air motors 7 and 29 is operated at 8 volts through an appropriate transformer.

Machines of this invention are operating at high speeds with efficiency in the attachment of dip tubes to valve assemblies and with practically no faulty operation over extended periods. The only thing the operator has to do is to feed the machine the necessary assemblies, press one foot upon the foot pedal, and apply new reels of tubing B as previous reels are exhausted. The machine is otherwise entirely automatic and unfailing in its operation. It takes up little space in the production line and entirely eliminates the bottle-neck heretofore caused by manual cutting and attachment of the dip tubes to valve assemblies.

The foregoing description sets forth the invention in its preferred practical form, but the invention is to be understood as fully commensurate with the appended claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A machine for equipping a valve housing, having a nipple, with a dip tube, comprising: a nest for a valve housing, means for yieldably supporting the nest in an advanced position while permitting it to be forced into a retracted position, means for feeding a valve housing to the nest while the latter is in its advanced position, means for clamping tubing against retrograde movement with its free end contiguous to and in alignment with the nipple of the valve housing in the nest, a ram, means for guiding the ram for movement to and away from the valve housing in the nest, gripping means on the ram, ram operating mechanism for first moving the ram in the direction of the nest to engage the gripping means with the valve housing in the nest and force the nest into its retracted position and the nipple of the valve housing into the free end of the tubing, and thereafter moving the ram away from the nest, carrying with it the valve housing and attached tubing until a predetermined length of tubing corresponding to the length of the desired dip tube has thus been withdrawn from the nest, and a cutter operable adjacent the nest to thereupon sever the tubing adjacent the nest, leaving said predetermined length of tubing permanently secured to the valve housing as a dip tube and the cut end of the remainder of the tubing held in position to receive the nipple of another valve housing.

2. A machine for attaching a dip tube to a valve housing comprising: a nest adapted to support a valve assembly having a valve housing provided with a nipple, means for resiliently supporting said nest for movement from advanced to retracted positions and vice versa, means on the nest for detachably holding a valve assembly in the nest when placed thereon, means for supporting tubing with its free end coaxially of a valve nipple in the nest and free;

such withdrawal, and a cutter for severing the tubing ad jacent the nest after the assembly has been withdrawn a predetermined distance.

3. A machine according to claim 1, wherein the valve housing is fed to the nest by an air motor with a magnet adjacent the path of feed and contiguous to the nest for braking the valve housing as it is fed into the nest to preclude undesirable impact 'of the assembly with said nest.

4. A machineaccording to claim 1, including a movable protective cover, means for operating the cutter, and electrical means for controlling the cutter operating means, said electrical means including a switch, and means movable with the cover for de-energizing said electrical means when thecoVer is in non-protective position.

5. A'machine for attaching a dip tube to a valve housing comprising: an" attaching station, means for feeding to the attaching station a valve housing having a nipple, means atthe attaching station for supporting the free end of a supply of tubing coaxially of the housing nipple at said station, mechanism for gripping and bodily moving the housing against the end of the tubing to force the nipple into the end of the tubing and for withdrawing the housing from the attaching station with the tubing attached to said housing and trailing along behind it, and means at the attaching station to thereafter sever that portion of the tubing contiguous to the valve housing from the re mainder thereof leaving the free end of the remainder of the tubing supply at the attaching station.

6. A machine for attaching a dip tube to a valve housing comprising: a nest at an attaching station, means for mounting the nest in a predetermined advanced position and for permitting its movement to a retracted position, means for feeding a valve housing having a nipple onto the nest while the latter is in advanced position, means for supporting tubing against retrograde movement with its free end contiguous to and-coaxial with the nipple of; the housing in the nest when the latter is in advanced position, means including -a gripper. for thereafter moving the-nest with housing therein axially of the nipple int'o retracted position to insert the .nipple into the contiguous end of the tubing and "for? thereafter. withdrawing: the housing with attached tubing from the nest a prede-i termine'd distance, and' means for thereafter cutting the tubing. adjacent the nest.

7. A machine for attaching a dip tube to avalve hous ing comprising: a nest adapted to support a valve assembly having a valve housing provided with a nipple, means. to resiliently support the nest'for movement from an advanced to a retracted position and'vice versa, a one way clutch forsupporting tubing with the free "end of the tubing coaxial of the valve nipple in the nestand'free from at tachment to the nipple, said one-way clutch permitting withdrawal of the tubing through the nest but gripping it against retrograde movement, a ram mounted to recipro cate coaxially of the nipple withmeans on the ram to grip the valve assembly when engaged therewith, mechanism for forcing the ram against a valve assembly in the nest and for forcing the assembly and nest into the retractedposition of the nesttoinsert the nipple into the tubing. and for thereupon withdrawing the ram to withdraw the valve assembly from the nest with the tubing attached to the nipple and trailing along behind it, and means for severing the tubingadjacent'the nest aftera predetermined length of dip tubing has been thus withdrawn through the nest by the ram.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 1,341,184 Leumann May 25, 1920. 1,392,871 Heifelfinger Oct. 4, 1921', 1,546,918 Clarke July 21, 1925 1,629,170 Matthias et al May 17, 1927 1,681,829 Wesseler Aug. 21, 1928 1,959,254 Zerk May 15, 1934 2,270,300 Hothersall Jan. 20, 1942 2,660,780 Beck Dec. 1, 1953 2,706,847 Jennings Apr. 26, 1955 

